Page 73 of Legacy

Reluctantly, they all moved but stayed nearby.

“Look, Francesca. I have nothing against you, so I suggest you leave me alone. I’m giving you this second and last warning. Your loud display does you no service. It makes you look desperate. You are above this. Get yourself together.”

She clenched her jaw. “I’m not a child. Don’t talk to me like one. Your name doesn’t give you power in this city. All Vitalis are scum.”

And my patience with this brat was over.

“You know my family name and background enough tocall me scum. That’s power in itself. In contrast, I don’t know or care to know yours. You are nothing to me and less to my husband. Come near me again, and I will retaliate.”

Fucking hell.

I dismissed the altercation and pivoted to walk away. Before I could get far, a piercing scream echoed out, and a body hit me from behind, knocking me down. Francesca grabbed my throat. I shifted to the side, fast enough to break her grip.

With my elbow, I clocked her on the side of the head and then clutched her neck in the way she had attempted to get mine. I shoved her to the ground, squeezing her airway, and held her in place with my knee on her chest.

“Attacking anyone when their back is turned makes you the scum. I can kill you with a small twist of my wrist.”

Whimpers and moans escaped Francesca’s lips, and tears streamed from her eyes, but they still blazed with hatred.

“I could let you live. Show Vitalis mercy if you don’t speak of my family again. This includes Elias.” I eased my hold and leaned in. “But we know that isn’t possible. You’ve made me your enemy when I don’t know you.”

She croaked out, “You will die.”

“Not before you.” Grasping her throat with one hand and the back of her neck with the other, I broke it, giving no fucks that I’d killed someone in public.

“Oh, for fuck’s sake. Why would you do that? We were here,” Besa said as I stepped away from Francesca’s body.

“He’s going to kill us.” He stared at me with sheer panic, and then the expression on his face changed to fear as he sawEli. “I swear it happened within seconds. She does what she wants. You know this.”

“Yes, I know. Have it cleaned up as if this never happened. Make sure to wipe all surveillance.”

Eli approached, taking my hands in his, and then tilted my neck to examine the marks. He turned his attention to Francesca, sprawled on the sidewalk, and fury lit his gaze.

“I will never allow anyone to threaten or attack me and get away with it again.”

He nodded, brushed his lips against my forehead, and touched my head against his chin. “That’s what a blood queen does.”

Twenty

Elias

Steam wafted from the hot bath as I held Avra against me. It was near sunset, and a deep golden glow filled the bathroom. I felt an unexplainable need to hold her and keep her close. It burned inside me with no signs of easing since I found her in the aftermath of the altercation with Francesca.

My wife, the woman I planned to spend the rest of my life with, the future mother of my children.

The last place she needed to be was near blood or violence, much less be at the center of it. But that wasn’t how it worked with us in our world.

Things like this happened every day.

Except it seemed as if she fucking courted danger more than any other female I had ever encountered.

It wasn’t just her bloodline that made her a prime target, but also because she refused to be anyone but herself. There was no taming that temper or sense of purpose.

No matter how much it drove me mad to know she’d engaged in a physical altercation, hearing Besa’s version of the events, I knew Avra had given plenty of warning to leave her alone, and then it was Francesca who attacked.

Thank God Avra had trained and knew how to handle herself. According to the soldiers, everything happened so fast that even if they’d intervened, Avra would have been unable to avoid injury.

It would have kept her from killing someone with her bare hands, but she appeared unbothered by it, making it very clear that this wasn’t her first time taking a life like that.

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